After more than 50 years, a girl who was’stolen’ by travelers and carried to Canada when she was four years old has been reunited with a family she never knew she had.
57-year-old Susan Gervaise was abducted from Pontefract, West Yorkshire, across the globe by a family of travelers who promised to take her to Disney World and return her home.
Ms. Gervaise, born Susan Preece, had always felt that her biological family had shunned her, and she had never considered searching for them.
Incredibly, 53 years later, she was able to locate her family within 30 minutes of her husband posting a Facebook appeal.
Ms. Gervaise says she was spoiled rotten by the traveling group, despite the fact that her family in the United Kingdom has been in upheaval since her abduction in 1969.
The mystery and anguish surrounding the loss of the young girl can now be resolved when she was reunited with four of her six siblings in West Yorkshire more than fifty years later.
After reassuring her original family that she had always been secure and loved and putting their minds at ease, the mother of three now wants to show others that there is hope for missing children.
Susan Gervaise, now 57 years old, has been reunited with four of her six siblings she was separated from by travelers when she was four years old and sent to Canada. Ms. Gervaise as a child (left) and today (right) (right)
Her biological mother, who tragically passed away eight years ago, was never reunited with her, so she never learned that her daughter was safe.
Ms. Gervaise, who currently resides in Australia and is a grandmother of four, stated, “As a child, I lived with my six siblings in an old vicarage on a traveller’s site.” We weren’t travellers.
My mother was an only child, and we all spent time in and out of foster care.
I was befriended by a Scottish couple with two sons. The wife, whom I call my mother, had multiple sclerosis.
I believe they desired a female. They requested my mother for permission to take me to Disney World, and she provided them with my birth certificate so that they could include me on their passport.
Instead, they transported me to Canada, Australia, and eventually New Zealand. This was their original plan.
Ms. Gervaise always knew she possessed her birth certificate, but she was repeatedly informed she was adopted.
57-year-old Susan Gervaise was reunited with four of her six siblings when her husband put a posting in a local Facebook group.
She continued, “I lived with the traveling community and experienced a pampered life where I was spoiled rotten.”
“My mother passed away from Multiple Sclerosis when I was 10 years old, but even then, having been raised in the center of a traveling community, I was immensely loved.
“I was always content as a child. I traveled the globe.
The grandmother, who now leads the nonprofit Fresh Start Mission with her 57-year-old traveler husband, did not find she had been abducted until she needed a passport to return to Australia from New Zealand at the age of 16.
She stated, “The gravity of what occurred to me did not strike me; I simply continued living my life.”
Ms. Gervaise was had to wait until she aged 18 to apply for an adult passport, and she returned to Australia at age 19, where she met her husband and had three children and four grandkids.
Her ‘father’ passed away at age 21. She stated, “It wasn’t until an adoptee asked me how my relatives back in the United Kingdom would feel that I had an aha moment.”
In June, thirty minutes after her husband initiated the search and posted a plea on the local Knottingley and Ferrybridge Community page, her family was located.
Except for one sibling, all of her surviving siblings still reside in the Pontefract area.
The grandmother of four (wearing a sash) combined her reunion with her 57th birthday in order to celebrate with her family.
She stated, “When I spoke to my family, they were sobbing uncontrollably because I was still alive.”
The mother, who is in the United Kingdom till October 20, planned her trip home to coincide with her 57th birthday so she could celebrate with her family.
She stated, “We still do not understand why the police were never involved.” I believe it was because my mother gave them permission to remove me and because we were frequently in and out of foster care.
However, there have been other Missing Persons appeals over the years, and my mother has frequently returned to the traveler’s site after moving away to hunt for me.
Emma McFadyen, the niece of Ms. Gervaise, stated, ‘It was said that Susan’s mother did search for her throughout the years, but without success.
So many questions remained unanswered following her passing. Things were very different in the past. There was no documentation and no police record.
We never imagined that this would occur. It’s been incredible, especially for my mother. It is remarkable that she has been reunited with her sister before her condition worsens, as she suffers from Parkinson’s disease and dementia. She is finally whole.’
Ms. Gervaise stated, “It sends a message to everyone who has lost a loved one that miracles are possible.” There is optimism.
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